CIVIC ELECTIONS ’86

Lahbor’s candidates seek civic seats

Nn Coquitlam, there’s a fight on to keep
nland in the Agricultural Land Reserve,
ld sewers and sidewalks as part of a
eating municipal upgrading plan, and
p taxes on residential property owners
n skyrocketing.

eWwhere around the Lower Mainland,
battles are being fought as candi-
les for city or municipal council, and
Sol board head to the polls with the
King of labor.

he New Westminster and District
Council endorsed 24 municipal can-
S$ Oct. 29, pledging some $4,200 to aid
financing the campaign of individuals
Civic organizations who vowed to
a the right of trade unions at the civic

The candidates represent — this year —
different municipalities. Several larger
Cipalities, including Richmond and
by, do not have elections this year.
Unlike Vancouver, where the Committee
Ogressive Electors and its unity
mers — with the strong backing of the
louver and District Labor Council —
Vea strong presence on city council anda
¢ chance at increasing their plurality on
15, candidates in the suburban com-
es of Greater Vancouver and the
-Valley face a tough, uphill fight
t the right wing forces.
“Councils are the hotbeds for Socreds in
ling, and we’ve got to tur that
hd,” Port Coquitlam alderman John
Tyluk told the labor council delegates.

' Several communities, labor-backed
™ candidates are running as independ-
‘. But in key municipalities, candidates
jaan seats under the banner of
alliances.

The Association of Coquitlam Electors
E)is hoping to add two more progres-

| Kamloops

: barring of a labor-backed candidate

Vic office in Kamloops has drawn the
trade unionists and calls into question
dity of a section of the Municipal

nce Brooks, until Oct. 28 president of
adian Union of Public Employees,

900, was barred from seeking an
anic seat on the order of the electoral.
8 officer — on the grounds that his
cy constituted a “conflict of inter-
mince Local 900 has a collective agree-

t With the city.

Oks, who was unsuccessful in his
Pt to have the courts overturn the rul-
‘ans to challenge the section under the
€t of Rights and Freedoms, with the
Nee of the B.C. Civil Liberties Asso-

S0ks was to be one of five candidates
Mayoral, aldermanic and school
"Seats under the banner of the labor
‘tted Municipal Electors for Respon-

sive voices to Coquitlam district council and

break the right-wing stronghold faced by

the incumbent, Ald. Eunice Parker.
“Coquitlam is a developers’ paradise,”

says ACE aldermanic contender Lorna
‘ Morford, a runner-up in last year’s election,

summing up the situation in the suburban
community.

Morford says the right-wing dominated
district council consistently re-zones land at
the request of developers, pointing to the
latest example: the decision to allow the
Real Canadian Superstore Corporation to
build a megamarket in Maillardville, des-
pite warnings from the district planner.

Morford and social and community acti-
vist Phil MacLeod are airing the ACE ald-
ermanic platform which includes “promo-
tion of fair economic development,” the crea-
tion of new parks and recreational facilities,
job creation through municipal infrastruc-
ture upgrading and preserving the former
provincial facility, Colony Farm, in the
Agricultural Land Reserve.

ACE school board candidate George
Porges, a Douglas College teacher, hopes to
join incumbent Anne Kachmar in fighting
for restoration of education funding and
opposing the sale of school property. The
ACE platform also includes “making Coq-
uitlam the 46th nuclear-free city in B.C.”

In Surrey, the Surrey Coalition of Pro-
gressive Electors (SCOPE) is heading to the
polls with a program that includes envir-
onmental protection, green “buffer” zones
in the sprawling municipality, social hous-

‘ing, expanded public transit and “defending

the labor movement” from government and
corporate attacks.

SCOPE, which includes individuals
allied with the Surrey Alternative Move-
ment (SAM), is fielding teacher and cultural
worker Steve Gidora, and community acti-

vist.and Carpenters Union member Terry
Lawrence in a race for municipal council.
For school board, SCOPE is endorsing the
candidacy of White Rock Food Bank direc-
tor and former school teacher Linda Mar-
cotte.

This year, SCOPE candidates have the
backing of New Westminster Labor Coun-
cil. That support was denied in previous
years, even though SCOPE and SAM can-
didates pledged to uphold the 10-point
municipal action program of the labor
council. SCOPE also the support of the
Carpenters, Local 452, and the Interna-
tional Brotherhood of Electrical Workers,
Local 213.

In Port Coquitlam, incumbents John
Keryluk and George Laking are seeking re-
election to council, while trustee Peter Dent
wants a renewed mandate on the district
school borad. Keryluk told the labor coun-
cil the majority on Port Coquitlam council
has rejected contracting out civic workers”
jobs, has withdrawn from the Greater Van-
couver Regional Dsitrict’s negotiating
committee to settle “fair contracts” with its
employees, and has declared the municipal-
ity a nuclear-weapons free zone.

In New Westminster, Chris Sargent of
the International Woodworkers, and
Charmaine Murray are after seats on city
council, while Vassant Saklikar is seeking
re-election as school trustee, along with
candidate Bill Engleson.

The newly-formed Regional Electors of
Aldergrove/Langley (REAL) is fielding
nine candidates for municipal and city
school board and council seats in Langley.
In Langley municipality, council contend-
ers include Tim Beachy, Dale West and
Velma Barbolet, while in the city, Darrill
Thomson, Graham Sahadeo and Jon White
are.on the. aldermanic. slate...For school

LAWRENCE

GIDORA

board, municipal candidates include Dennis
Rankin and Susan Dodd, with Diane Pona
seeking the city trustee’s seat.

The labor council also endorsed Sharon
Brown, running for alderman in Mission,
and Jim Peters for alderman in Pitt Mea-
dows.

All candidates signed the labor council’s
political action program, which pledges
candidates to defend labor’s rights and
oppose: strike-breaking, fight for low-cost
rapid transit, work for affordable housing
and support union labor on all government
projects.

In North Vancouver district, trustee
Dorothy Lynas is heading for another term
on school board with the support of the
Vancouver and District Labor Council.

Lynas, a veteran trustee, also’ has the.
support of the Citizens Association for
Responsible Education (CARE), an organ-
ization that works for candidates opposed
to provincial government cutbacks in edu-
cation. The full CARE slate includes Lynas,
Langara campus teacher Jeremy Dalton,
television producer Don Williams and cultu-
ral and community worker, Anne Macdo-
nald.

The labor council has also endorsed dis-

trict alderman Emie Crist i in his re-election,
bid. tol aved AW 94? bar Gedein)” ’

trade unionist barred from running

sible Action(MERA) — a group with poli-
cies patterned after those of Vancouver’s
Committee of Progressive Electors.

The school bus driver, who works for the
school district rather than the municipality,
filed his nomination papers with returning
officer and municipal clerk Wayne Thiessen
Oct. 24..

On Oct. 27 Brooks was informed that his
candidacy was disqualified because of Sec-
tion 82 l(c) of the Municipal Act, which
bars from seeking office anyone who “has
directly or indirectly, by himself of through
another person, any contract or interest in a
contract with the municipality.”

Brooks in an interview said he’d offered
to resign his presidency of Local 900 that
day, but was told by Thiessen that his mem-
bership in the local — which, with other
Okanagan locals of CUPE, is locked out by
or is striking area municipalities — was the
issue.

Brooks subsequently resigned his presid-

RE-ELECT
SUE HARRIS

ency ata memberhsip meeting the next day,
in preparation for a provincial court chal-
lenge to Thiessen’s ruling.

But the court upheld the ruling, although
on slightly different grounds. Justice Jurgen
Behncke told Brooks that his presidency
only, rather than his membership, was at
issue. He said Brook’s resignation from the
presidency the preceding day was too late,
since he had been president when nomina-
tions closed at 21 noon, Oct. 27.

“T feel I was deceived,” said Brooks of

‘Thiessen’s ruling.

“T guess we should be used to getting our
teeth kicked in — we’re union,” he said.

The ruling drew an angry comment from
Cliff Andstein, secretary-treasurer of the
B.C. Federation of Labor, who compared it
to the situation in the Philippines under the
Marcos dictatorship. Mike Dumler, B.C.
Division president of CUPE, said several
CUPE members are running for office in
other B.C. municipalities.

What is particularly galling is that the
personnel director of the school district
employing Brooks is himself an aldermanic
candidate. Simon Masin is chief negotiator
for School District 6. ,

In an editorial the local Kamloops News
noted that several other candidates and

incumbents face potential conflicts of inter- -

ests. Ald. Ivan Jakic has been involved in
council discussions concerning a develop-
ment in which he was involved, while Ald.
Russ Gerard belongs to a veterinary associ-
ation under contract with the city.

Ironically, the Municipal Act does not
bar anyone having business dealings with
municipalities from seeking office in that
municipality. Exempted from the provi-
sions of Section 82 1(c) are those who are
shareholders in corporations having con-
tracts with the municipality.

Ted Whelan, senior advior on legal pol-

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, NOVEMBER 5, 1986 « 3

BIRO HARPER

icy in the Ministry of Municipal Affairs,

agrees that the section appears to bar no.

shareholders — whatever amount of shares
that person holds — in the corporation
doing business with the municipality.

The section only stipulates that council
members with such interests be barred from
voting on specific motions dealing with the
corporation’s business with the municipal-
ity. For companies such as financial institu-
tions and insurance corporations, the rules
are a bit stiffer: neither officers nor
employees of the corporation may vote.

Whelan said the ministry is “keeping an
eye”’ on the case.

MERA candidates — they include John
Harper, an active member of the Carpen-
ters Union, for mayor, United Transporta-
tion Union local president Ray McInnes for
alderman, and Donna Biro and Laszlo Sol-
tesz for school board — are contesting the
elections on an anti-restraint platform.

MERA’s council program includes fair
wages for workers on city contracts, main-
taining city jobs and services, increasing the

_ community service grants budget, imple-

menting equal pay for work of equal value
for civic workers and seeking “‘a new tax
deal” from Victoria. School candidates call
for an end to restraint in public education.

A ROR RES SRR eR es RE RINNE A UM

AEA: HN

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